A lot of people wonder if cheap web hosting services are any good and if you can really trust them with your website.
The short answer is Yes. So this post will help you, my dear friend.
The web hosting industry has made huge improvements over the years, and the prices of quality hosting setups have dropped significantly.
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Still, not all hosting companies are created equal, and you still have to be very careful about which specific company and which of their hosting plans you choose. This is where the following comparison comes into play.
We researched, bought, and tested over 50 different web hosting services to find the top cheapest hosting offerings out there. The final list features 7 great alternatives in India or all over the world.
In this review, you’ll learn what “cheap” hosting really is, what you’ll have to pay on average, what to expect from cheap hosting, and what are the best cheap web hosting service providers in 2021.
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The 7 Best Cheap Web Hosting Options to Consider:
Hostinger – Best cheap web hosting for most
DreamHost – Cheapest month-to-month web hosting
Bluehost – Best cheap web hosting for WordPress
GreenGeeks – Best for image and video-heavy websites
SiteGround – Best for users who need extra support
A2 Hosting – Fastest cheap web hosting services
HostGator – Best for cheap cloud and VPS hosting
When It Makes Sense to Go With Cheap Web Hosting
One of our favorite WordPress web hosting providers is WPEngine. It’s fast, reliable, and you get a ton of other perks (like a 100% hands-off white-glove hosting experience).
The catch? It’s $30+ per month on the cheapest plan. Ouch.
When your website is new, you don’t need all those fancy add-ons or fully managed hosting services. They’re absolutely overkilling for new websites.
Instead, you need cheap web hosting that’ll get you up and running as fast as possible with an affordable price tag that doesn’t put you out of business before you even
get started.
Which… is why cheap shared hosting exists.
It’s an accessible option for small or new websites with little traffic and a limited number of files, images, and pages.
The good news is that you can start with cheap hosting and upgrade to better services when you start to see a decline in site performance and can justify the added monthly expense.
Methodology For Choosing The Best Cheap Web Hosting
Now you know our top cheap web hosting recommendations.
Next, let’s talk about the criteria we considered and how we chose these specific providers (aside from our own experiences using them).
When it comes to cheap web hosting, it’s typically understood that lower costs come with a lower ceiling for performance and fewer features. So, the methodology we
the outline below will help you decide which “type” of cheap is the best fit for your new website.
Promotional Pricing vs. Long-Term Costs
Every option on this list has a monthly promo fee of less than $7 per month and they all renew at less than $15 per month after your initial contract term.
Compared to dedicated or managed hosting, this is a steal (even at the renewal rate). However, you need to decide which type of “cheap” you’re looking for.
Do you want to pay as little as possible today, or do you want the best long-term pricing?
If you’re looking for the lowest out-of-pocket costs today, Dreamhost is the cheapest. You can get started for $4.95. And that’s it.
The other good news is that you don’t have to worry about promotional pricing. That’s the price you’ll pay forever.
However, the cheapest long-term web hosting service is Hostinger at $0.99/month with a two-year contract. You’ll pay $47.52 today for four full years of hosting. Then, the price goes up to $2.99 per month.
It’s cheaper in terms of long-term costs, but it’s more out-of-pocket today.
Another thing to consider is the cost of add-ons and other features you may need but aren’t included in your cheap hosting plan. This includes things like domain name privacy and protection, email accounts, a domain name, and extra security.
Many “cheap” plans don’t include some or all of these things to keep costs low.
So, while something may SEEM to be the cheapest option out there, don’t forget to factor in these extra expenses when comparing prices for different providers.
For example, both Hostinger and Dreamhost don’t include a free domain name with their introductory plans. So, that’s an added expense you need to consider. Furthermore, Hostinger comes with one email account, whereas Dreamhost doesn’t include any.
As such, you’ll have to pay extra for email accounts if you need them, whereas the other options on our list include an unlimited number of email accounts for free.
Website Performance
If you’re interested in optimizing for search engines or improving the overall user experience, site speed makes a difference.
Want people to stick around? Load faster than three seconds. Want to sell more products or generate more affiliate revenue? Don’t make visitors wait.
Most cheap hosting plans offer similar site speed performance. The real difference comes when you upgrade to a managed plan or dedicated server. However, A2 Hosting boasts the fastest cheap web hosting in the industry.
With that said, factors like storage space, bandwidth, and a content delivery network (CDN) play a role in how fast your site loads.
While every provider listed here (aside from Hostinger) offers unmetered bandwidth on their cheap introductory plan, that doesn’t mean it’s unlimited.
Once you reach a certain threshold, your site’s performance will start to suffer and you’ll need to upgrade to a better plan as your website gets more traffic and you use up your available storage space.
In terms of website performance, Hostinger is the most limiting with 10 GB of storage space and 100 GB of bandwidth on the entry-level plan.
Which… makes sense because it’s the cheapest option on your list.
These limitations won’t affect you when you’re just getting started. But, as your website grows, you’ll start to feel the degradation in performance until you upgrade to a more expensive plan.
On the other hand, GreenGeeks offers the most room for growth with unlimited storage space and unmetered bandwidth. However, it’s more out-of-pocket today and the renewal rate is on the more expensive side.
Going back to what we talked about earlier, you have to decide which type of “cheap” is the best fit for your situation.
High Server Uptimes
Every provider on this list has an uptime guarantee between 99.9% and 99.99%. However, this doesn’t mean you’ll never experience downtime.
In most cases, that guarantee doesn’t include scheduled downtime or situations outside of the provider’s control. Which… covers nearly every situation in which your site would be down. Check out this example from A2 Hosting.
If your site does go down for more than 0.1% of the month, you get 5% of that month’s fees back for every hour of downtime.
But they list numerous events that don’t qualify for their 99.9% guarantee, including scheduled maintenance and network outages. It leaves us to wonder what actually IS covered under their promise.
With that said, unexpected downtime could mean lost revenue or missed opportunities.
So, that 0.01% of downtime—or more—isn’t something to take lightly (regardless of what your provider promises).
And although it may not happen often, your site WILL go down at some point. When it happens, you need top-notch customer service that’s on top of resolving the issue as fast as possible.
24/7/365 Support
Whether you’ve never set up a website before, have set up hundreds of websites, or are migrating from a host you’re unhappy with, 24/7/365 support is crucial.
Aside from unexpected downtime, quick access to an experienced customer service rep should play a role in your decision. This is true even if you don’t expect to contact them for anything because you never know what’s going to happen.
Some provider’s on our list outsource customer support, meaning their representatives aren’t a part of their in-house team.
This can lead to extremely frustrating service experiences, particularly because they may not know enough about the technical side of your hosting plan to actually do anything and help you resolve the issue.
Another thing to consider is where the support team is located. Are they strictly US-based?
While that’s excellent for US customers, it’s not so great for international customers in different time zones. You may have to wait an entire day to get a response due to time differences.
Furthermore, you may not be able to call the support team at all if they don’t provide international phone numbers.
The best way to test response times and overall support quality are to take advantage of money-back guarantees. Sign up for an account, pay the initial fees, and get to know their customer support team.
Try every support channel they offer and take note of your experience.
If they’re unhelpful or you don’t get the help you need promptly, cancel and move on to a host better suited to help you.
Just remember to cancel and request a refund before your refund period is up.
Most providers give you at least 30 days to try out their services. However, DreamHost gives you 97 days, and A2 Hosting offers an anytime money-back guarantee. With that said, SiteGround is known for its exceptional customer service. So it’s a fantastic choice if this is your first time buying hosting, or you’d like additional guidance along the way. However, it does come in as one of the most expensive “cheap” hosting options on our list.
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